Bloodwork
by ofb29
Summary: strictly case file. maybe. it can happen. so i'm told. involves blood. if you didn't guess.


Sara chopped the mushrooms in time with the beat playing on the radio. It was turned up to the max, filling the small kitchen with noise, Sara's voice joining in on the words she could remember. Nirvana and Smells like Teen Spirit had never sounded quite like it before.

The music was so loud, Sara almost missed the ringing of the phone. She cursed as she sliced her finger instead of the mushroom, sticking her finger in her mouth as she turned the radio down to a more respectable level, and went through to answer the phone.

'Hello Darling. You're not listening to that awful noise again, are you?'

'Hi mom, what's up?' Sara said, removing the finger before speaking, watching as the cut filled with blood again. She absently wiped it on a napkin.

'I just felt like calling.'

'You never just feel like calling.' Sara corrected her. 'You always have a reason.'

'Don't be silly, darling. I can call my daughter whenever I want to.'

'Yes you can. Why you choose to is another reason.'

Sara heard her mom sigh over the phone and smiled slightly.

'Anyway.' Her mom carried on. 'I was wondering when you were planning to come home.'

'I've got work, mom. I can't just come home whenever.'

'I realise that, darling. But you get holiday don't you? We haven't seen you in ages.'

Sara rolled her eyes. 'Have you run this plan past dad?' She asked, hearing the hardness coming to her voice even as she physically tried to stop it.

The hesitation was all she needed to know the answer to that.

'When daddy agrees, call me. Maybe we can work something out.' Sara said, putting the phone down before her mom could repeat words she had heard for the last ten years.

Sara walked back into the kitchen, turning Nirvana back on full volume, getting back to chopping the mushroom, determined to enjoy her weekend off. Pushing any thoughts of home deep into the recesses of her mind.

A bottle of wine, and some seriously nice food later, Sara was feeling deliciously mellow. The music was softer now, a mix she had copied to mp3, currently playing through a Toni Braxton classic. She fell asleep where she lay on the sofa, the food and wine competing in making her feel sleepier.

The incessant beeping of her pager jerked her awake with such a start that she sat up and promptly fell off the sofa. She threw the pager across the room, but when that failed to stop that annoying beep, she crawled over to it, cutting it dead with a jab at the button. The LCD display glowed ghostly green in the dark of the room. The only other light was from the music system that was on stand-by having finished the music long ago.

"Turn your cell on." Sara read on the display, sighing loudly as she guessed what was coming. She found her cell down the back of the sofa five minutes later, and turned it on. Then went and found the charger lead when it turned off almost straight away. With the plug in, the cell charging, and a single lamp burning in the room, the cell vibrated against the table, Gris Mob illuminated.

Sara answered with a single non-commital sound.

'Sara, that you? Look, sorry to disturb you on your day off, but we've been over run, I need you to come in.'

'What is it?' Sara asked, trying not to sound curious.

'Two multiples, someone's been busy. You, Warrick and Nick have one in Ceders.'

'Gee, thanks Gris.' Sara said, heavy with the sarcasm. Ceders was about the poshest place to live in Las Vegas. Rich people equalled expensive lawyers and a hard time getting anything done.

'I know it's your weekend off, but what can I do? Look, here's the address.' He said the address as Sara committed it to memory, not being able to see any paper around. 'I'll owe you the days.' He added at the end, as if that could make everything ok.

'You already owed me these days. You owe me a whole lifetime of days. I haven't had a day off in three weeks! You're gonna owe me much more this time Grissom.' Sara said vehenomently, stabbing her finger violently against the cut off button. When all that did was hurt her cut finger, she threw the phone back on the kitchen counter, watching as it skidded dangerously close to the sink, stopping just on the edge, before stalking to her room to change. So much for her planned do nothing but mulch for the next three days plan.

Sara sped through town. It was half three and the roads were empty, and she got to Ceders in only twenty minutes. She didn't need to remember the address for the murder, the cop cars and crime tape highlighted the area just as well.

A lab issue Tahoe was outside already, so Sara pulled in next to it, cutting the engine, lifting her case off the passenger seat as she swung her legs out of the car. Flashing her ID, she followed the smell of blood through to the back of the house, finding Nick and Warrick studying two bodies lying in a pool of blood.

'What you got?' Sara asked, putting her case down and snapping on gloves.

'Hey Sara.' Nick greeted her with a smile. 'Two males, each killed with a single gunshot to the back of the head. Neither live in the house, no ID.'

'Who found them?'

'Owner of the house. Was out at some function, got back at three, found them here and called it in.'

'And he doesn't recognise them?'

'To be fair, there isn't exactly much to recognise.' Warrick put in.

As Sara came forward she understood what he meant. The exit to the gunshots had completely obliterated the faces.

David the coroner was knelt by one of the bodies and looked up at them. 'TOD approx midnight. Visible bruising on both bodies. I'll know more when we get them back to the lab.'

'Thanks David.' Nick said, leaning down.

Sara crossed to the other body, leaning down next to it as she studied it in its entirety. She picked up a hand, looking at the palm. 'He's got defensive wounds.' She announced.

'This one too.'

'I'll make sure to scrape the nails.' David promised, beckoning over the assistants with the gurneys to scrape up what was left of the bodies up.

Sara guessed the photos of the scene had already been done, so started looking for trace. Things out of place, or not where they should be. Blood splatter that might determine what went down that night. Nick and Warrick were also looking, Warrick already on his way outside to do the perimeter. 

She didn't realise how far she'd wandered till she was in a passage between what she guessed was the kitchen and garage. It smelled of washing powder, and to her left was a door. She noticed that it wasn't quite closed, and when she opened it fully, she found scrapings on the inside lock. She looked up, noticing the owner of the house watching her. 'Is this door normally locked?' She asked.

The silver haired guy nodded.

'Where does it lead?'

'Cellar. The washing machine's down there.' He answered.

Sara pulled her Maglite from her pocket and switched it on, shining it down a set of wooden stairs. She couldn't see anything suspicious, so started walking down them, stepping to the side just in case as she went. The bottom of the stairs led into a large cold room, and what Sara was looking for. Shattered glass lay underneath a small window, the entrance maybe. She walked over to the window, studying it, wondering if it was big enough for a grown male to climb through. The appearance of a male face in said gap scared the life out of her, making her drop her torch in the middle of the glass. 'Man you scared the living crap out of me!' Sara exclaimed to a grinning Warrick. 'It's not funny.' She added as she stooped to get her torch.

'It was from where I'm standing.' She heard Warrick say as something highlighted by the torch light came into focus. 'Gee no need to get in a mood.' He added. 'Sara? What you got?'

Sara had blood. Rather a lot of blood as well. 'You got a camera? I've got a pool of blood down here.'

'Yeah.' Sara stood up and retrieved the camera. 'One of the guys cut himself climbing in the window? It is rather small.'

'It's nowhere near the glass.' Sara dismissed, snapping the pool of blood, the flash briefly illuminating the cellar. By the time she had set the scale and got the shots off Warrick was walking gingerly down the stairs. 'Could one of them have been shot down here and moved?' She asked as he got to her, standing over her to look at the pool.

'No blood drops up the stairs.' Warrick pointed out. He shone his torch up, playing it across the floor. 'No blood trail.'

Sara played her own torch along the wall, picking up the washing machine, tumble dryer, a rack of clean silver tools. She'd gone past the rack onto a stack of metal drawers before something registered with the rack. She brought her torch beam back, playing it along the tools again. She got to her feet, walking slowly over to the rack, her beam from the torch soon joined by another as Warrick picked up on what she was looking at. One of the tools was too clean. The screwdrivers, the metal files, the plane were all covered in dust and mud and metal filings. The hammer though, was clean, the metal gleaming in the torch light.

'Oh, this is too easy.' Warrick said from behind her as Sara picked up the hammer, looking at it from all angles.

Sara took the tool with her back to the case, using a cotton bud to wipe along the head of the hammer. The chemicals did their job, the tip turning pink as she dropped liquid on them. 'Pink for blood.' She murmured mostly to herself. She looked over at Warrick. 'So, someone gets whacked round the head with a hammer, causes a lot of blood. And then two guys get shot in the back of the head at close range.' Sara said, dropping the hammer into a plastic evidence bag.

'Gunshot wound to cover up the original head wound?' Warrick guessed as there were footsteps on the stairs behind them.

They both turned to look at Nicky. 'No sign of the murder weapon.' He told them, as his torch found the pool of blood. 'And it looks like someone extended the party down here.'

Sara showed him the plastic bag containing the hammer.

'Well, never seen a hammer make a wound like a gunshot.' Nick said. 'So I guess, that was the original wound.'

'Wanna play it out.' Sara asked Warrick, thinking of his earlier, this is too easy, comment.

'They break into the house. Nice neighbourhood, probably hoping there was something to nick. They make a noise breaking the window. House owner hears, comes down, grabs the closest weapon and hits one of them over the head with it. They make it up the stairs. Owner catches up with them in the kitchen, shoots them point blank with the gun.' Warrick said.

'No blood trail.' Sara murmured.

'Huh?'

'There's no blood trail. If you've got a head wound, you usually drip blood.' Sara said. She pointed her torch towards the stairs.

'Someone's cleaned it up?' Warrick suggested.

'Cleaned up the trail, but not the pool?' Sara asked.

'Maybe they were trying to throw us off.' He said after a moments thought.

'Why don't we luminol?' Nick suggested.

Sara went to get the UV light from upstairs, seeing the owner was still giving his statement to the police. Brass, newly arrived to oversee the procedures caught her eye and came forward.

'What have you got?'

'There's a pool of blood down in the basement, with a hammer that's been cleaned.' Sara told him.

Brass groaned.

'We're just going to see if there's anything more.'

Sara stood at the top of the stairs, adjusted the hand held UV light, and put on her goggles. Immediately, footsteps started showing up on the stairs where she sprayed the luminol. She followed them down, taking pictures as she went, till she got to the foot of the stairs. From there, the blood took an almost straight line to the pool she'd found earlier, and not, Sara noticed to the tool rack. She pointed it out to the others as she went.

They all stood, facing each other, surveying the blood that the UV was picking up.

'Care to revise your guess?' Nick asked Warrick.

'Nothing like a murder to fill a place with blood.' Warrick said grimly.

'There was another body here.' Sara exclaimed suddenly.

'What?'

'The blood, I bet you, is from a completely different crime scene. Some of the blood was cleaned, but some kept to throw us off.' Sara said. 'The vic was killed with the hammer, then transferred upstairs to wherever to dump. The guy cleans himself up, before cleaning the murder weapon and putting it back.'

'And he cleans some of the blood, but leaves this pool here?' Nick asked doubtfully.

'I don't know why.' Sara said honestly. 'Maybe he was going to finish tonight or something and didn't get a chance.'

'So we've got two different crime scenes?' Nick said looking out at the blood trails.

'Yep.' Sara confirmed.

'Great.' He said without humour.

Sara was holed up in one of the labs an hour later, about to superglue fume the hammer to see if there were any usable prints. She was doubtful. If the killer had taken the time to clean the blood off, he'd probably cleaned the prints as well.

She'd dropped blood samples off at the labs with Greg on her way in. They'd decided to split the two murders up. She was taking the second older one, apparently because she had been the one to discover it. Warrick and Nick were gonna stick with the original two bodies and see where that went. And if they happened to meet in the middle, so be it.

Sara felt she'd seriously gotten the short end of the stick. She had blood. And a weapon. But she had no body, no way to prove whether it was a murder or not. Just gut reaction. And she knew what Grissom would say if she told him that.

But she had at least another hour before Grissom was gonna be around to break the news to about the second crime scene to. So between then and now, she had to just get something to show for it.

She watched the hammer as the fumes filled the plastic tent. She held her breath, even as wipe marks began to appear in the fumes. She felt acute disappointment as she looked at the completely clean handle and head. Absolutely nothing. She took down the plastic tent, and picked up the handle, turning it over in her hands. Then she saw one partial print. Right at the base of the handle, half of a thumb print it looked like, on the edge. Probably the way the killer was handling it as they cleaned the rest of it off. She took the print, and then scanned it into AFIS. She wasn't that hopeful, it was only a partial after all, and probably going to throw up more than one print. However, even one print could give them more leads to follow up.

As she waited for results, she turned to the photos she'd taken of the luminol, pulling out a clear piece of Perspex onto which she could plot the blood. An hour later and she was studying the paper, looking at a baffling array of red felt tip pen. Someone had lost a lot of blood. Someone was dead, she knew it. She just had no way to prove it.

Her pager went as she was wondering this and other things, and she looked down to read the display, expecting it to be Greg with news of preliminary results. Instead she got a message from Grissom to come to his office.

Outside his door she met up with Warrick and Nick, who had paper and everything with them. She felt a bit under prepared with empty hands.

They didn't get a chance to talk, as Grissom called for them to come in.

'Two cases, is that right?' Grissom asked before they'd even sat down.

Warrick nodded as he and Nick took seats at the desk that Grissom was sitting behind. Sara stayed standing, wandering around the shelves of various embalmed body parts, and avoiding the glass tank of spiders at one end.

'Walk me through it.' Grissom instructed. Sara idly wondered why he was taking such an interest- was his case with Catherine boring or something?

Warrick detailed out the case, aided at parts by Nick when he forgot to mention something.

'So, two dead bodies. How do we know the blood doesn't belong to one of the vics?'

'Blood doesn't make it possible.' Nick answered quickly.

'The killer could have cleaned up after himself.'

'The bloods probably old. It had already started to congeal, whilst the bodies were less than an hour dead.' Sara told him. 'Murder weapon doesn't match either of the bodies.' She added. Plus her gut was telling her there was another victim in that house.

She didn't mention that to Grissom of course.

Grissom sat back in his chair, his fingers laced, a thoughtful look on his face. 'I don't know if I feel comfortable with making it two cases based on the evidence so far.'

Sara didn't turn to look at him. She could imagine the look on his face, she'd seen it often enough.

'There's another body.' Sara said quietly into the room, her tone matter of fact.

'Show me the evidence.' Grissom countered.

'I can't, yet. But there will be. I know.'

Grissom didn't question how she knew. He didn't have to. He thought some more before he sighed. 'Fine. Work it how you see fit. But I want you all to stay in touch, consult. Even if it's two cases, it's still one house, effectively one crime scene. Make sure you communicate.'

'Yessir.' Sara said, slightly sarcastically as she walked out of the office followed by Nick and Warrick. 'See you guys later.' She told them, walking in the direction of the DNA lab to tell Greg to get a move on with her stuff.


End file.
